Hour 2 | 4000 - 1700 BCE
“The Five Cradles of Civilization” · Sumer and Akkad in Mesopotamia · Writing Systems · Hammurabi’s Code · Norte Chico/Caral · Ancient Egypt · How to “Unite” a Land · Indus Valley/Harappa · Xia Dynasty · Origins of Dynastic China · What is a Civilization?
“These things never happened, but always are.” Sallust, Roman philosopher, 4th century CE.
This second episode begins in this new “Bronze Age.” However the use of bronze was not the only seismic shift in human history occurring at this time, massive civilizations were coalescing and beginning to write, recording their own history, as well as literature, songs, laws and tax codes. Wide spread slavery and warfare emerge, defining life for many people in these cities. This episode will cover what history classes refer to as the “Five Cradles of Civilization.” Although we will dismantle each word in this phrase, we will borrow its framework to talk about the early civilizations in Mesopotamia, Peru, India, Egypt, and China.
The first “cradle” we look at in this episode is Mesopotamia or the land “between the rivers.”
Sumerian is a “language isolate.”
Enheduanna - history’s first named author.
Read her most famous work The Exaltation of Inana.
Cool article from the New Yorker about the debate over Enheduanna. Is she a real person?
Sargon the Great, one of history’s first rulers of an empire. He has a birth story very similar to the Biblical Moses
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest epic poem. Read a summary here.
Behistun Inscription - serves as a Rosetta Stone for Cuneiform.
Cuneiform recipes, literature, proverbs, hymns and even board games.
Sexagesimal system, or a base 60 number system - where we get our modern 60 minute hours, sixty second minutes, and 360 degree circle.
King Hammurabi’s law code.
We then move to the Norte Chico or Caral Civilization
Caral - Supe most studied city.
Ruth Shady - Peruvian archeologist - largely responsible for our emerging knowledge of this ancient society.
Large public works including pyramids and sunken round plazas.
These plazas were possibly used for the ceremonial game played throughout this part of the world in later societies.
We have discovered mummies in Caral.
We have found art, figurines, and instruments as well the earliest known version of a Quipu.
We then travel back to the fertile crescent and look at Egypt
The Nile River is the life blood of Egypt - flooding and creating fertile, life giving “Black Land” in contrast with the dead “Red Land.”
The Nile has several places where the narrow shallow waters make it impassable in a boat. These are know as Cataracts.
King Menes/Narmer “united” the two kingdoms, and began wearing the double crown.
Despite Hollywood’s insistence, the pyramids were not built by slaves.
How were the pyramids built? - coolest part of this is leveling the base using water. “The base of Khufu's pyramid is level to 2 centimeters”!
The discovery of the Rosetta Stone allowed modern scholars to translate ancient hieroglyphs.
We then travel to the Indus Valley or Harappan Civilization
Plumbing in the Indus.
City of Harappa gave the whole civilization its name.
Harappan jewelry, figurines of animals, and pottery.
Seals with animals, commonly unicorns, were used as signatures.
People are trying to translate the writing system but we don’t have a Rosetta Stone.
The Indus Valley is know for its remarkable city planning.
No one really knows what happened to the Indus. Climate change is a common theory.
Our last cradle is in northern China along the Yellow River
Huangdi or Huang-ti, also known as the Yellow Emperor is credited with creating “Chinese culture.”
Among other things Huangdi is credited with the invention of Silk.
His burial site is still a popular tourist attraction.
The volume of silt in the Yellow River gives it a yellow-brown color.
Because of its tendancy to flood catastrophically, the yellow river is also known as China’s Sorrow.
Yu the Great or Yu the Engineer created systems to control the floods in the Huang He Valley.
Credited as the first leader of the Xia_Dynasty.
Probably mythological - but retroactively credited as beginning the cycle of dynastic China.
The concept of the Mandate of Heaven was invented later, but reflected back on the Xia.
Dive Deeper
The main sources we relied on to make this episode. Plus fun extras - ancient recipes, games, music and more!
Journal of Archeological Research, “Killing the Priest-King: Addressing Egalitarianism in the Indus Civilization”
Why do we assume we will find priests and kings?
Note: There are very few books written about the Norte Chico/Caral Civilization— this unfortunately means many of my sources are behind academic paywalls.
American Journal of Biological Anthropology, The diet at the onset of the Andean Civilization: New stable isotope data from Caral and Áspero, North-Central Coast of Peru
Nature, Dating the Late Archaic occupation of the Norte Chico region in Peru
Preceramic Civilization in Coastal Peru: Revolutionary Data, Pioneering Interpretations
Irving Finkel, “Cracking Ancient Codes: Cuneiform Writing”
How do we figure out ancient writing systems? One of the world’s experts explains. Also he’s hilarious - I highly recommend.
Tides of History, “What was the Indus Valley Civilization? Interview with Dr. Adam Green”
“Dr. Adam Green of Cambridge University joins [Patrick Wyman] to explain the unusual way in which the Indus Civilization was organized, its lack of powerful elites, and how and why it eventually fell apart.”
Ted Talk, “A Rosetta Stone for the Indus script - Rajesh Rao
Trying to crack the code of a writing system without a Rosetta Stone.
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Episodes
- Jan 24, 2023 Hour 1 | 3,300,000 - 4000 BCE
- Jan 23, 2023 Hour 2 | 4000 - 1700 BCE
- Jan 22, 2023 Hour 3 | 1700 - 1200 BCE
- Jan 21, 2023 Hour 4 | 1200 - 800 BCE
- Jan 20, 2023 Hour 5 | 800 - 575 BCE
- Jan 19, 2023 Hour 6 | 575 - 480 BCE
- Jan 1, 2023 Season 2
